Light-emitting elements containing organic compounds as light-emitting bodies have been expected to be applied to next-generation lighting. Light-emitting elements containing organic compounds as light-emitting bodies have features such as drive at a low voltage with low power consumption.
An EL layer included in a light-emitting element includes at least a light-emitting layer. In addition, the EL layer can have a layered structure including a hole injection layer, a hole transport layer, an electron transport layer, an electron injection layer, and/or the like, in addition to the light-emitting layer.
It is said that, as for a light-emitting mechanism of a light-emitting element, an EL layer is interposed between a pair of electrodes and voltage is applied to the EL layer, so that electrons injected from a cathode and holes injected from an anode are recombined in an emission center of the EL layer to form molecular excitons, and the molecular excitons release energy when returning to a ground state; thus, light is emitted. Singlet excitation and triplet excitation are known as excited states, and light emission can probably be achieved through either of the excited states.
Further, since the pair of electrodes and the light-emitting layer are formed as films in such a light-emitting element, surface light emission can easily be obtained by forming a large-area light-emitting element. This is a feature which is hard to obtain in light sources such as incandescent lamps and LEDs (point light sources) or in fluorescent lamps (line light sources), so that the above light-emitting element has a high utility value as a light source such as lighting.
Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose light-emitting devices in each of which a plurality of light-emitting elements is connected in series.